Child sexual abuse survivors are being let down

The Crown Prosecution Service’s latest grim statistics show that, despite the increasing number of police recorded rapes over the past five years, the prosecution rate has reduced. This state of affairs, has been branded as the ‘decriminalisation of rape’ by the Victim’s Commissioner Dame Vera Baird QC.

And the data’s fine print also reveals a heart-breaking truth: the victims suffering from the worst outcomes are children. Just 16 per cent of victims aged 10-13 saw their abuser charged for the abuse they inflicted, with 55 per cent then seeing no prosecution take place. By contrast, the charge rate in the 25-59 victim bracket was 46 per cent, while the no prosecution rate was 30 per cent.

Disclosure of sexual abuse is a massive undertaking for a child, with only around an eight of cases coming forward. Many victims are petrified of their abuser and the ramifications of reporting them and, in these cases, the vast majority of abuse is perpetrated by a family member, making it all the more miserable for the child to tell someone.